MTC #10: Ready to Run

Thank you for your love and support. It's hard to believe that I've been here for just under ten weeks! I leave for Japan on Monday. Am I dreaming? I have been wanting to go to Japan for quite some time now, and it is just about to happen! Hontou ni waku waku shi te imasu!

Well, we are STILL waiting to find out whether or not Elder De Menezes will be getting surgery. The consultation with the doctor went well, and the surgery would be very beneficial, so now we wait, some more.

Thursday last week was SO awesome! We got our Flight Plans. We'll fly from SLC to Los Angeles, and from there to the Narita Airport in Tokyo. I'm not too worried about packing, because it looks like I don't have as much stuff as I thought I did.

Ooh, part of last Thursday wasn't so good. . . Well, it was, just interesting: While Elder De Menezes went up to Salt Lake with a service missionary/interpreter for the consultation, I stayed with my class, and joined Elders Everts and Sheffield to teach in the TRC. It was actually really cool, being able to switch between three people. The flow was really fun. However, the "investigator" was a little rude in my opinion. We were constantly searching for ways to keep the investigator involved, asking questions, trying to relate it to him (well, maybe we could have done more of that), and etc. However, quite a few times throughout the lesson, he would pretend to nod off to sleep. Even when I was in the middle of doing my best to give the Joseph Smith experience with real testimony, he nodded off right then and there! I almost got a bit frustrated, but instead took a chill pill and tried to remain calm.

That's one thing I'm still working on though, focusing on the investigator. I'm getting better, but I kept sticking to the weird idea that I had to start at the beginning every time. Like yesterday, we taught Sister Woo at the Teaching Evaluation Center, and it went pretty well, but we could have taught toward her needs a bit better. Good experience, nevertheless.

The Referral Center on Saturday was awesome. I spoke with a man named Roy Wright. He had ordered a Book of Mormon a while ago, and had read a little bit of it, but it had been a while. I challenged him to read the introduction, and more of the Book of Mormon, and he accepted. I then offered to send the missionaries by, and he almost declined - but I said they would call first to set an appointment, and he agreed! Awesome!!!

Sadly, I still haven't been able to get a hold of Amy D. again, but I called and left a message about how she can go to LDS.org to read the Book of Mormon. Oh well.

Oh, I bought a new set of scriptures. I had been wanting to for a while, my old set is so beat up and worn out, and marked way too much (it's hard to read some of the pages because I was so careless). Elder De Menezes gave me the advice that he heard from a General Authority: on the mission, you have a new life. New life = new scriptures. So I did it. I will most likely send my old quad home, after searching through to find the items I would like to transfer over.

Ooh! Thank you SOOOOOO much for the package. Elder De Menezes was so happy when he saw that you bought him a 4 gig memory card (ME TOO!) And all that EFY music made me so happy - hearing music from my childhood! Thank you so much for the cinnamon sugar pop-tarts. They really hit the spot. ooh, and the Japanese snacks! Good stuff! Perfect ties, I'm trading them up! :)

Thank you for everything! I love you!

MTC #8: It's Not About Arguments

So on Wednesday, my district went to the Referral Center to take some chats. So, my first and only chat that day was rather difficult. Jesse C. She started off by saying, "So, tell me one thing that will make me believe in God or religion." From our discussion, I learned that she came from a religious family, but she was quite anti-religious. She said that she had tried to pray when she was younger and never received an answer. The chat lasted for probably 45 minutes or an hour. It seemed like all she wanted was an argument. I kept telling her that nothing I would say would prove God's existence, because religion is about faith. I think she was trying to make me mad, because she would write things like, "Oh, so when you pray, you get an answer? God talks to you? Sends an email? Writes a message in the clouds?" She then tried to bring up the big bang argument "Here's where Science is on my side. The big bang created the world, not God." Part of me wanted to retort, saying something like, "Well, even scientists are starting to admit that some greater force had to have activated the big bang." But, i didn't. This isn't about argument. It's about letting go of your concerns and asking in faith. I challenged her to pray again. "Okay, Paul. I'll try one more lousy time to pray, and hopefully God will give you an answer and tell you that it didn't work." Please pray for her. I wasn't really mad, I was more sad for her, sad that her heart was so hard that she wouldn't even try to hope or exercise any faith. Please, pray hard for her that she will have a softened heart and recognize the gentle voice that will answer. The spirit speaks so softly sometimes, that if you are so set in your ways, you won't hear an answer.

Oh, and then on Saturday, I called this woman named Shel S. to ask about her ordering a copy of "Finding Faith in Christ". She hadn't received it yet, so I re-sent the item, but then talked to her a bit about Christ, and shared from the Book of Mormon. She seemed very interested until I told her that we couldn't mail her the copy because she already ordered the DVD - she would have to receive it along with a visit from the Missionaries. She kindly declined, and said not at this time. Please pray for her too. I'm going to call back this week and tell her about the online lds.org scripture library, so she can at least start to read it.

I called Amy D. back, but again, she was busy, but seemed very kind and said I could try back later. I just have to find the right time! This is so exciting!

So at the Temple this morning, just as we were walking downstairs, I ran into Robert Bennett from LDC. That was so awesome! It seems like I run into someone I know almost every time we leave the MTC!

Oh, by the way Mom, please tell Laurie and Brianna thank you and much gratitude from myself and Elder De Menezes. And please tell everyone about http://www.dearelder.com because they can write an e-mail to me and it gets printed out and delivered to my mailbox here. You have to open an account, but it's free to the Provo MTC. You have to tell them the following: MTC Mailbox #82, mission code: JPN-HIR and date I'm leaving : Mar16.

Well, I'm off to the devotional. Love you!